Each and everyone one of us endure hardships throughout our short and meaningless lives. Finding the right job, finding your soul mate and saving someone you love are all struggles that most of will have to overcome sometime during our existence. Let it be said that none of these struggles even compare to the tasks our beanie-clad protagonist must surpass. Character study courses have been offered at colleges nationwide ever since we first learned about the multifaceted moral dilemmas that Parappa the Rapper deals with.
Imagine a world without hope, a world without love. Now imagine a world with no food except for noodles. Parappa, the tragic hero of this title, has just won a 100 year supply of noodles from some burger establishment down the street. A lifetime supply of noodles would appear to be the root of all happiness for normal folk like you and I, but for such a complex character such as Parappa the Rapper it is anything but. Parappa yearns for some food besides noodles. Ever since he won that blasted contest all he has been able to eat were noodles.
One day Parappa’s lady friend, Sunny Funny, decided to cook up a special dish for Parappa and his best friend PJ Bear. However the dish she mistakenly served was noodles! Fate has just dealt Parappa a cruel hand of irony. Since Parappa has had countless amounts of noodles the past few months, he can’t eat this tainted meal. Sunny Funny then lashes out against our poor, albeit flawed, hero and calls him a “baby.” Parappa is crushed by the foul wench’s words of hurt. He then embarks on an epic quest to redeem himself to Sunny and prove he isn’t a baby, but a real man.
Sunny is constantly haunting Parappa’s thoughts, so he decides to get a burger with PJ. While ordering his meal, the phenomenon known as “noodlelization” occurs! All the hamburgers turn into noodles! Oh, the humanity. Luckily our fast-acting rapper decides to rap with the long dead owner of the store to return the hamburgers back to their original form. The ingenious scheme pays off and the noodles turn back into hamburgers. But for how long will this prevent noodlelization from occurring again?
Being the heroic figure that he is, Parappa decides to join the cause and fight against noodlelization. After rapping his way through the rigorous boot camp, Parappa and PJ become 2 of the most promising troops in the army. While I do not want to spoil this section of Parappa’s ordeal, I just want to say that war is hell. Parappa learned this hard way. After some numerous and ingenious plot twists, the game unfortunately comes to an end. The story of Parappa and his noodles is one that won’t be soon forgotten.
Through out the Parappa saga (as I like to call it) we have to help Parappa with his rapping “skillz.” A rapper alongside Parappa busts out a phat rhyme, and we have to help Parappa copy the so called “phat rhyme.” Certain buttons are displayed on screen, and then we have to hit the same buttons at a certain time. Occasionally wec an “freestyle” and make up our own button presses for the strong-willed Parappa. If too many buttons are missed, then you fail the stage and must restart it. Assisting Parappa in rapping is incredibly simple, but it may be too simple for the likes of ignoramus’ and haters of previous installments from the divine being that is Parappa the Rapper. Occasionally some levels can be a bit tricky since the difficulty level increases as you progress deeper into the plot.
Since this title is a rhythm game, good tunes are essential. Fortunately Parappa and his freestylin’ buddies are all skilled in the ways of rap. Each one can belt out catchy and often ludicrous lines without being hard on the ears. If Parappa is performing poorly then the tune slows down a bit in order for us to catch up. Unfortunately the tune isn’t quite as catchy when this happens so performing well is necessary to hear the raps in all its awe-inspiring glory.
The characters in this title are flat and 2 dimensional. This is obviously done to signify the hopelessness of each character as they try to prevent noodlelization from occurring world wide. I made that up. The world of Parappa is very colorful and vibrant, like in a cartoon. The backgrounds in this epic are a bit simple, but they have lots of charm. You know the graphics are charming if all the appliances during a certain part of the game are smiling and dancing to the beat. Overall Parappa deserves some better graphics considering this is the Playstation 2.
However every great person has a downfall. For Napoleon it was the defeat at Waterloo. For Bill Clinton it was engaging in sexual activities with an intern. Seeing as how Parappa is great, he also has a downfall. His quest is easily beaten in under an hour. We deserve to spend more time with Parappa, but the wretched developers only gave us 1 hour to spend with the greatest rapping dog ever. Shame on the developers!
The tale of Parappa will not leave anyone dissatisfied, but the length will. The beats are fresh and rhymes are kicking but the shortness holds this game back. However since the game is very cheap to purchase, I still recommend it. $10.00 is a small price to pay to hear the greatest story known to man. The story of Parappa needs to be told, and I advise all of you to listen to it. There’s a little bit of Parappa in all of us.
PaRappa the Rapper 2
PS2 review by Anthony Karge - Monday 24th February 2003
Thunderbolt score: seven out of ten
Players: U
Online: No
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